1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling electronic devices such as for instance apparatus which receive, transmit and process signals in telecommunications radio link systems. In particular it concerns a distributed application protocol, namely a method of providing the communication between two or more control units.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Recently, the use of distributed control systems is becoming more and more imperative in those fields where the control of complex systems is required. Therefore, a demand arises as to the definition of application layer communication protocols/methods that support such control methodology and that utilize at best the resources and services that are available from lower layers, already developed by third parties.
The known application layer protocols contemplate the use of complete hardware solutions, or they have been developed expressely for special types of microcontrollers. Moreover, in order to be able to realize complex control systems with distributed data, they are not employable in architectures that use microcontrollers with reduced system resources.
Further, such protocols, for the transmission of data of the system under control, require that connections be established by utilizing specific services. This results in a greater complexity of implementation and in a greater data transfer time.
Other protocols, which do not utilize such data transfer modes, provide for a negotiation between the entities that have to exchange a data item to determine the format and the identification of the message to be utilized.
An example of electronic device that must be controlled and supervised could be an apparatus that receives, transmits and processes signals in telecommunications radio link systems. In such apparatus it is necessary to control the alarms that are possibly generated, it is necessary to collect and analyze the various operating states and carry out configurations.